Finding the Taste of Home Through Fermentation in a Kitchen Across the Ocean | Food Talk Vol. 24
Perhaps you have already heard of making your own fermented vegetables, napa cabbage kimchi or kombucha – these seem to have become the latest obsession among young people. In reality, you may never have realised that fermented foods are standard fare in our kitchens. Soy sauce, vinegar, alcohol, cheese, miso, fermented bean curd – they are all masterpieces of fermentation.
In this episode, the Food Talk hosts and guest Sun Shan will take you into the mysterious, surprising world of fermented foods.
A fermentation enthusiast, Sun Shan runs a farm in Canada and has faced the predicament common to smallholder farmers: her hard-grown kale earns rave reviews at the Farmers’ market but sells poorly amid fierce competition. In a stroke of inspiration, she switched to making Korean-style kimchi from her kale, and it was a hit. From then on, she set up her own fermentation kitchen on the farm.
and learn more about Sun Shan’s farm story
In fact, the “starter culture” behind fermented foods shares its English name with the word for civilisation – both are “Culture”. Many cultures boast their own fermented foods: France has cheese and wine, Japan has soybean paste and rice vinegar. And when Chinese people speak of the “taste of home”, a fermented food or two always tumbles out of the memory.
Recent research shows that fermented foods can subtly influence our physical and mental health by altering the gut microbiota. Sun Shan has found that at Canadian Farmers’ markets, the liveliest conversations are not about buying and selling produce, but about pickles and kimchi.
For those new to fermentation, Sun Shan also shares her insights – from the heartwarming experience of turning humble ingredients and simple techniques into a delicious chilli sauce, to the sweet that follows the bitter after a hundred-plus failures before she finally recreated the fermented flavours of the mountains. By tracing the fermented foods of childhood memories, perhaps we can all discover the ultimate taste life has to offer, understand our own families, our cultural roots, and share the joy of fermentation with more friends. Pick the fermented foods you love most – whether it is kimchi or sourdough – and go and try them boldly!
This episode is the first podcast in Foodthink’s fermentation series. Stay tuned – there is much more fermentation content to come!
Guests of This Episode
Sun Shan
Co-founder of the Shan Shui Conservation Center and currently its Chairperson. She began farming in 2015, immersing herself in the life of the land, agriculture, food, ecology and self-sufficiency (Homesteading). Now based in Canada, she founded Chi Garden Eco Farm and its fermentation kitchen.
Hosts of This Episode
Wang Hao
Foodthink editor. A fermentation novice who often abandons projects halfway through.
Xiao Chao
A Foodthink project officer preparing to leave the team; a fermentation enthusiast who has tried making kombucha, sauerkraut, Sichuan-style pickled vegetables, yoghurt, bread and more.
Timeline
02:44 Sun Shan’s story with fermented foods: faced with kale she grew with such care yet that earned rave reviews but sold poorly – why not make Korean-style kimchi instead?
06:35 Are kimchi and pickles good for your health? The gut microbiota may influence physical and mental wellbeing
13:03 Fermentation is culture – “starter culture” and “Culture” are one and the same: France has cheese and red wine, Japan has soybean paste and rice vinegar. What fermented foods does China have?
14:54 Fermented foods produced under industrial standards for various methods are perfectly safe, but the rich diversity of local fermented foods offers something altogether more distinctive.
21:37 What do we mean when we say “the taste of home”? Could a few fermented foods also tumble out of your memory of home?
22:48 Isn’t eating fresh vegetables better than fermented foods? In an age of “abundant choice” where tomatoes are available even in winter, why do we still need fermented foods?
26:38 A fermenter’s daily life: after a hundred failures, finally recreating Yunnan-style fermented pickled vegetables with Canadian kale.
32:16 Chic, expensive “natural wine” and backward, unhygienic, inferior “earth-pit pickled vegetables” are both fermented foods. What kind of craft does “fermentation” – something practised from a home kitchen to a three-Michelin-star restaurant – truly represent?
40:42 Meeting friends through fermentation, relationships spreading as quickly as bacteria: Sun Shan’s fermentation kitchen in Canada is a small community where people connect.
46:14 What can a fermentation novice try first?
49:15 There is a certain compatibility between different fermented foods and different people – whether it is kimchi or sourdough, choose the one you love, the one from your memories, and try it boldly.
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This episode’s podcast production team
Coordination & production: Xiaojing
Cover art: Wan Lin
Music: Banong
Editor: Wang Hao
Contact email: xiaojing@foodthink.cn